{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1638/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1638","id":"gutenberg_1638","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1638","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Spiritualism"],"text":"Produced by Charles Keller.  HTML version by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW REVELATION\n\n\nBY\n\nARTHUR CONAN DOYLE\n\n\n\nDedication\n\nTo all the brave men and women, humble or learned, who have the moral\ncourage during seventy years to face ridicule or worldly disadvantage\nin order to testify to an all-important truth.\n\nMarch, 1918\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nMany more philosophic minds than mine have thought over the religious\nside of this subject and many more scientific brains have turned their\nattention to its phenomenal aspect.  So far as I know, however, there\nhas been no former attempt to show the exact relation of the one to the\nother.  I feel that if I should succeed in making this a little more\nclear I shall have helped in what I regard as far the most important\nquestion with which the human race is concerned.\n\nA celebrated Psychic, Mrs. Piper, uttered, in the year 1899 words which\nwere recorded by Dr. Hodgson at the time.  She was speaking in trance\nupon the future of spiritual religion, and she said:  \"In the next\ncentury this will be astonishingly perceptible to the minds of men.  I\nwill also make a statement which you will surely see verified.  Before\nthe clear revelation of spirit communication there will be a terrible\nwar in different parts of the world.  The entire world must be purified\nand cleansed before mortal can see, through his spiritual vision, his\nfriends on this side and it will take just this line of action to bring\nabout a state of perfection.  Friend, kindly think of this.\"  We have\nhad \"the terrible war in different parts of the world.\"  The second\nhalf remains to be fulfilled.\n\nA. C. D.\n  1918.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCHAPTER\n\n   I  THE SEARCH\n  II  THE REVELATION\n III  THE COMING LIFE\n  IV  PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS\n\n\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS\n\n   I  THE NEXT PHASE OF LIFE\n  II  AUTOMATIC WRITING\n III  THE CHERITON DUGOUT\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW REVELATION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE SEARCH\n\n\nThe subject of psychical research is one upon which I have thought more\nand about which I have been slower to form my opinion, than upon any\nother subject whatever.  Every now and then as one jogs along through\nlife some small incident happens which very forcibly brings home the\nfact that time passes and that first youth and then middle age are\nslipping away.  Such a one occurred the other day.  There is a column\nin that excellent little paper, Light, which is devoted to what was\nrecorded on the corresponding date a generation--that is thirty\nyears--ago.  As I read over this column recently I had quite a start as\nI saw my own name, and read the reprint of a letter which I had written\nin 1887, detailing some interesting spiritual experience which had\noccurred in a seance. Thus it is manifest that my interest in the\nsubject is of some standing, and also, since it is only within the last\nyear or two that I have finally declared myself to be satisfied with\nthe evidence, that I have not been hasty in forming my opinion.  If I\nset down some of my experiences and difficulties my readers will not, I\nhope, think it egotistical upon my part, but will realise that it is\nthe most graphic way in which to sketch out the points which are likely\nto occur to any other inquirer.  When I have passed over this ground,\nit will be possible to get on to something more general and impersonal\nin its nature.\n\nWhen I had finished my medical education in 1882, I found myself, like\nmany young medical men, a convinced materialist as regards our personal\ndestiny.  I had never ceased to be an earnest theist, because it seemed\nto me that Napoleon's question to the atheistic professors on the\nstarry night as he voyaged to Egypt: \"Who was it, gentlemen, who made\nthese stars?\" has never been answered.  To say that the Universe was\nmade by immutable laws only put the question one degree further back as\nto who made the laws.  I did not, of course, believe in an\nanthropomorphic God, but I believed then, as I believe now, in an\nintelligent Force behind all the operations of Nature--a force so\ninfinitely complex and great that my finite brain could get no further\nthan its existence.  Right and wrong I saw also as great obvious facts\nwhich needed no divine revelation.  But when it came to a question of\nour little personalities surviving death, it seemed to me that the\nwhole analogy of Nature was against it.  When the candle burns out the\nlight disappears.  When the electric cell is shattered the current\nstops.  When the body dissolves there is an end of the matter.  Each\nman in his egotism may feel that he ought to survive, but let him look,\nwe will say, at the average loafer--of high or low degree--would anyone\ncontend that there was any obvious reason why THAT personality should\ncarry on?  It seemed to be a delusion, and I was convinced that death\ndid indeed end all, though I saw no reason why that should affect our\nduty towards humanity during our transitory existence.\n\nThis was my frame of mind when Spiritual phenomena first came before my\nnotice.  I had always regarded the subject as the greatest nonsense\nupon earth, and I had read of the conviction of fraudulent mediums and\nwondered how any sane man could believe such things.  I met some\nfriends, however, who were interested in the matter, and I sat with\nthem at some table-moving seances.  We got connected messages.  I am\nafraid the only result that they had on my mind was that I regarded\nthese friends with some suspicion.  They were long messages very often,\nspelled out by tilts, and it was quite impossible that they came by\nchance.  Someone then, was moving the table.  I thought it was they.\nThey probably thought that I did it.  I was puzzled and worried over\nit, for they were not people whom I could imagine as cheating--and yet\nI could not see how the messages could come except by conscious\npressure.\n\nAbout this time--it would be in 1886--I came across a book called The\nReminiscences of Judge Edmunds.  He was a judge of the U.S. High Courts\nand a man of high standing.  The book gave an account of how his wife\nhad died, and how he had been able for many years to keep in touch with\nher.  All sorts of details were given.  I read the book with interest,\nand absolute scepticism.  It seemed to me an example of how a hard\npractical man might have a weak side to his brain, a sort of reaction,\nas it were, against those plain facts of life with which he had to\ndeal.  Where was this spirit of which he talked?  Suppose a man had an\naccident and cracked his skull; his whole character would change, and a\nhigh nature might become a low one. With alcohol or opium or many other\ndrugs one could apparently quite change a man's spirit.  The spirit\nthen depended upon matter.  These were the arguments which I used in\nthose days.  I did not realise that it was not the spirit that was\nchanged in such cases, but the body through which the spirit worked,\njust as it would be no argument against the existence of a musician if\nyou tampered with his violin so that only discordant notes could come\nthrough.\n\nI was sufficiently interested to continue to read such literature as\ncame in my way.  I was amazed to find what a number of great men--men\nwhose names were to the fore in science--thoroughly believed that\nspirit was independent of matter and could survive it.  When I regarded\nSpiritualism as a vulgar delusion of the uneducated, I could afford to\nlook down upon it; but when it was endorsed by men like Crookes, whom I\nknew to be the most rising British chemist, by Wallace, who was the\nrival of Darwin, and by Flammarion, the best known of astronomers, I\ncould not afford to dismiss it. It was all very well to throw down the\nbooks of these men which contained their mature conclusions and careful\ninvestigations, and to say \"Well, he has one weak spot in his brain,\"\nbut a man has to be very self-satisfied if the day does not come when\nhe wonders if the weak spot is not in his own brain.  For some time I\nwas sustained in my scepticism by the consideration that many famous\nmen, such as Darwin himself, Huxley, Tyndall and Herbert Spencer,\nderided this new branch of knowledge; but when I learned that their\nderision had reached such a point that they would not even examine it,\nand that Spencer had declared in so many words that he had decided\nagainst it on a priori grounds, while Huxley had said that it did not\ninterest him, I was bound to admit that, however great, they were in\nscience, their action in this respect was most unscientific and\ndogmatic, while the action of those who studied the phenomena and tried\nto find out the laws that governed them, was following the true path\nwhich has given us all human advance and knowledge.  So far I had got\nin my reasoning, so my sceptical position was not so solid as before.\n\nIt was somewhat reinforced, however, by my own experiences.  It is to\nbe remembered that I was working without a medium, which is like an\nastronomer working without a telescope.  I have no psychical powers\nmyself, and those who worked with me had little more. Among us we could\njust muster enough of the magnetic force, or whatever you will call it,\nto get the table movements with their suspicious and often stupid\nmessages.  I still have notes of those sittings and copies of some, at\nleast, of the messages.  They were not always absolutely stupid.  For\nexample, I find that on one occasion, on my asking some test question,\nsuch as how many coins I had in my pocket, the table spelt out:  \"We\nare here to educate and to elevate, not to guess riddles.\"  And then:\n\"The religious frame of mind, not the critical, is what we wish to\ninculcate.\" Now, no one could say that that was a puerile message. On\nthe other hand, I was always haunted by the fear of involuntary\npressure from the hands of the sitters. Then there came an incident\nwhich puzzled and disgusted me very much.  We had very good conditions\none evening, and an amount of movement which seemed quite independent\nof our pressure.  Long and detailed messages came through, which\npurported to be from a spirit who gave his name and said he was a\ncommercial traveller who bad lost his life in a recent fire at a\ntheatre at Exeter.  All the details were exact, and he implored us to\nwrite to his family, who lived, he said, at a place called Slattenmere,\nin Cumberland.  I did so, but my letter came back, appropriately\nenough, through the dead letter office.  To this day I do not know\nwhether we were deceived, or whether there was some mistake in the name\nof the place; but there are the facts, and I was so disgusted that for\nsome time my interest in the whole subject waned.  It was one thing to\nstudy a subject, but when the subject began to play elaborate practical\njokes it seemed time to call a halt.  If there is such a place as\nSlattenmere in the world I should even now be glad to know it.\n\nI was in practice in Southsea at this time, and dwelling there was\nGeneral Drayson, a man of very remarkable character, and one of the\npioneers of Spiritualism in this country.  To him I went with my\ndifficulties, and he listened to them very patiently. He made light of\nmy criticism of the foolish nature of many of these messages, and of\nthe absolute falseness of some.  \"You have not got the fundamental\ntruth into your head,\" said he.  \"That truth is, that every spirit in\nthe flesh passes over to the next world exactly as it is, with no\nchange whatever.  This world is full of weak or foolish people.  So is\nthe next.  You need not mix with them, any more than you do in this\nworld. One chooses one's companions.  But suppose a man in this world,\nwho had lived in his house alone and never mixed with his fellows, was\nat last to put his head out of the window to see what sort of place it\nwas, what would happen?  Some naughty boy would probably say something\nrude.  Anyhow, he would see nothing of the wisdom or greatness of the\nworld.  He would draw his head in thinking it was a very poor place.\nThat is just what you have done.  In a mixed seance, with no definite\naim, you have thrust your head into the next world and you have met\nsome naughty boys.  Go forward and try to reach something better.\"\nThat was General Drayson's explanation, and though it did not satisfy\nme at the time, I think now that it was a rough approximation to the\ntruth.  These were my first steps in Spiritualism.  I was still a\nsceptic, but at least I was an inquirer, and when I heard some\nold-fashioned critic saying that there was nothing to explain, and that\nit was all fraud, or that a conjuror was needed to show it up, I knew\nat least that that was all nonsense.  It is true that my own evidence\nup to then was not enough to convince me, but my reading, which was\ncontinuous, showed me how deeply other men had gone into it, and I\nrecognised that the testimony was so strong that no other religious\nmovement in the world could put forward anything to compare with it.\nThat did not prove it to be true, but at least it proved that it must\nbe treated with respect and could not be brushed aside.  Take a single\nincident of what Wallace has truly called a modern miracle.  I choose\nit because it is the most incredible.  I allude to the assertion that\nD. D. Home--who, by the way, was not, as is usually supposed, a paid\nadventurer, but was the nephew of the Earl of Home--the assertion, I\nsay, that he floated out of one window and into another at the height\nof seventy feet above the ground.  I could not believe it.  And yet,\nwhen I knew that the fact was attested by three eye-witnesses, who were\nLord Dunraven, Lord Lindsay, and Captain Wynne, all men of honour and\nrepute, who were willing afterwards to take their oath upon it, I could\nnot but admit that the evidence for this was more direct than for any\nof those far-off events which the whole world has agreed to accept as\ntrue.\n\nI still continued during these years to hold table seances, which\nsometimes gave no results, sometimes trivial ones, and sometimes rather\nsurprising ones.  I have still the notes of these sittings, and I\nextract here the results of one which were definite, and which were so\nunlike any conceptions which I held of life beyond the grave that they\namused rather than edified me at the time.  I find now, however, that\nthey agree very closely, with the revelations in Raymond and in other\nlater accounts, so that I view them with different eyes.  I am aware\nthat all these accounts of life beyond the grave differ in detail--I\nsuppose any of our accounts of the present life would differ in\ndetail--but in the main there is a very great resemblance, which in\nthis instance was very far from the conception either of myself or of\neither of the two ladies who made up the circle.  Two communicators\nsent messages, the first of whom spelt out as a name \"Dorothy\nPostlethwaite,\" a name unknown to any of us. She said she died at\nMelbourne five years before, at the age of sixteen, that she was now\nhappy, that she had work to do, and that she had been at the same\nschool as one of the ladies.  On my asking that lady to raise her hands\nand give a succession of names, the table tilted at the correct name of\nthe head mistress of the school.  This seemed in the nature of a test.\nShe went on to say that the sphere she inhabited was all round the\nearth; that she knew about the planets; that Mars was inhabited by a\nrace more advanced than us, and that the canals were artificial; there\nwas no bodily pain in her sphere, but there could be mental anxiety;\nthey were governed; they took nourishment; she had been a Catholic and\nwas still a Catholic, but had not fared better than the Protestants;\nthere were Buddhists and Mohammedans in her sphere, but all fared\nalike; she had never seen Christ and knew no more about Him than on\nearth, but believed in His influence; spirits prayed and they died in\ntheir new sphere before entering another; they had pleasures--music was\namong them.  It was a place of light and of laughter. She added that\nthey had no rich or poor, and that the general conditions were far\nhappier than on earth.\n\nThis lady bade us good-night, and immediately the table was seized by a\nmuch more robust influence, which dashed it about very violently.  In\nanswer to my questions it claimed to be the spirit of one whom I will\ncall Dodd, who was a famous cricketer, and with whom I had some serious\nconversation in Cairo before he went up the Nile, where he met his\ndeath in the Dongolese Expedition.  We have now, I may remark, come to\nthe year 1896 in my experiences.  Dodd was not known to either lady.  I\nbegan to ask him questions exactly as if he were seated before me, and\nhe sent his answers back with great speed and decision.  The answers\nwere often quite opposed to what I expected, so that I could not\nbelieve that I was influencing them.  He said that he was happy, that\nhe did not wish to return to earth. He had been a free-thinker, but had\nnot suffered in the next life for that reason.  Prayer, however, was a\ngood thing, as keeping us in touch with the spiritual world.  If he had\nprayed more he would have been higher in the spirit world.\n\nThis, I may remark, seemed rather in conflict with his assertion that\nhe had not suffered through being a free-thinker, and yet, of course,\nmany men neglect prayer who are not free-thinkers.\n\nHis death was painless.  He remembered the death of Polwhele, a young\nofficer who died before him.  When he (Dodd) died he had found people\nto welcome him, but Polwhele had not been among them.\n\nHe had work to do.  He was aware of the Fall of Dongola, but had not\nbeen present in spirit at the banquet at Cairo afterwards.  He knew\nmore than he did in life.  He remembered our conversation in Cairo.\nDuration of life in the next sphere was shorter than on earth.  He had\nnot seen General Gordon, nor any other famous spirit.  Spirits lived in\nfamilies and in communities.  Married people did not necessarily meet\nagain, but those who loved each other did meet again.\n\nI have given this synopsis of a communication to show the kind of thing\nwe got--though this was a very favourable specimen, both for length and\nfor coherence. It shows that it is not just to say, as many critics\nsay, that nothing but folly comes through.  There was no folly here\nunless we call everything folly which does not agree with preconceived\nideas.  On the other hand, what proof was there that these statements\nwere true?  I could see no such proof, and they simply left me\nbewildered.  Now, with a larger experience, in which I find that the\nsame sort of information has come to very, many people independently in\nmany lands, I think that the agreement of the witnesses does, as in all\ncases of evidence, constitute some argument for their truth.  At the\ntime I could not fit such a conception of the future world into my own\nscheme of philosophy, and I merely noted it and passed on.\n\nI continued to read many books upon the subject and to appreciate more\nand more what a cloud of witnesses existed, and how careful their\nobservations had been. This impressed my mind very much more than the\nlimited phenomena which came within the reach of our circle.  Then or\nafterwards I read a book by Monsieur Jacolliot upon occult phenomena in\nIndia. Jacolliot was Chief Judge of the French Colony of Crandenagur,\nwith a very judicial mind, but rather biassed{sic} against\nspiritualism.  He conducted a series of experiments with native fakirs,\nwho gave him their confidence because he was a sympathetic man and\nspoke their language.  He describes the pains he took to eliminate\nfraud.  To cut a long story short he found among them every phenomenon\nof advanced European mediumship, everything which Home, for example,\nhad ever done.  He got levitation of the body, the handling of fire,\nmovement of articles at a distance, rapid growth of plants, raising of\ntables.  Their explanation of these phenomena was that they were done\nby the Pitris or spirits, and their only difference in procedure from\nours seemed to be that they made more use of direct evocation.  They\nclaimed that these powers were handed down from time immemorial and\ntraced back to the Chaldees.  All this impressed me very much, as here,\nindependently, we had exactly the same results, without any question of\nAmerican frauds, or modern vulgarity, which were so often raised\nagainst similar phenomena in Europe.\n\nMy mind was also influenced about this time by the report of the\nDialectical Society, although this Report had been presented as far\nback as 1869.  It is a very cogent paper, and though it was received\nwith a chorus of ridicule by the ignorant and materialistic papers of\nthose days, it was a document of great value.  The Society was formed\nby a number of people of good standing and open mind to enquire into\nthe physical phenomena of Spiritualism.  A full account of their\nexperiences and of their elaborate precautions against fraud are given.\nAfter reading the evidence, one fails to see how they could have come\nto any other conclusion than the one attained, namely, that the\nphenomena were undoubtedly genuine, and that they pointed to laws and\nforces which had not been explored by Science.  It is a most singular\nfact that if the verdict had been against spiritualism, it would\ncertainly have been hailed as the death blow of the movement, whereas\nbeing an endorsement of the phenomena it met with nothing by ridicule.\nThis has been the fate of a number of inquiries since those conducted\nlocally at Hydesville in 1848, or that which followed when Professor\nHare of Philadelphia, like Saint Paul, started forth to oppose but was\nforced to yield to the truth.\n\nAbout 1891, I had joined the Psychical Research Society and had the\nadvantage of reading all their reports.  The world owes a great deal to\nthe unwearied diligence of the Society, and to its sobriety of\nstatement, though I will admit that the latter makes one impatient at\ntimes, and one feels that in their desire to avoid sensationalism they\ndiscourage the world from knowing and using the splendid work which\nthey are doing.  Their semi-scientific terminology also chokes off the\nordinary reader, and one might say sometimes after reading their\narticles what an American trapper in the Rocky Mountains said to me\nabout some University man whom he had been escorting for the season.\n\"He was that clever,\" he said, \"that you could not understand what he\nsaid.\"  But in spite of these little peculiarities all of us who have\nwanted light in the darkness have found it by the methodical,\nnever-tiring work of the Society.  Its influence was one of the powers\nwhich now helped me to shape my thoughts.  There was another, however,\nwhich made a deep impression upon me.  Up to now I had read all the\nwonderful experiences of great experimenters, but I had never come\nacross any effort upon their part to build up some system which would\ncover and contain them all. Now I read that monumental book, Myers'\nHuman Personality, a great root book from which a whole tree of\nknowledge will grow.  In this book Myers was unable to get any formula\nwhich covered all the phenomena called \"spiritual,\" but in discussing\nthat action of mind upon mind which he has himself called telepathy he\ncompletely proved his point, and he worked it out so thoroughly with so\nmany examples, that, save for those who were wilfully blind to the\nevidence, it took its place henceforth as a scientific fact.  But this\nwas an enormous advance.  If mind could act upon mind at a distance,\nthen there were some human powers which were quite different to matter\nas we had always understood it.  The ground was cut from under the feet\nof the materialist, and my old position had been destroyed.  I had said\nthat the flame could not exist when the candle was gone.  But here was\nthe flame a long way off the candle, acting upon its own.  The analogy\nwas clearly a false analogy.  If the mind, the spirit, the intelligence\nof man could operate at a distance from the body, then it was a thing\nto that extent separate from the body.  Why then should it not exist on\nits own when the body was destroyed?  Not only did impressions come\nfrom a distance in the case of those who were just dead, but the same\nevidence proved that actual appearances of the dead person came with\nthem, showing that the impressions were carried by something which was\nexactly like the body, and yet acted independently and survived the\ndeath of the body. The chain of evidence between the simplest cases of\nthought-reading at one end, and the actual manifestation of the spirit\nindependently of the body at the other, was one unbroken chain, each\nphase leading to the other, and this fact seemed to me to bring the\nfirst signs of systematic science and order into what had been a mere\ncollection of bewildering and more or less unrelated facts.\n\nAbout this time I had an interesting experience, for I was one of three\ndelegates sent by the Psychical Society to sit up in a haunted house.\nIt was one of these poltergeist cases, where noises and foolish tricks\nhad gone on for some years, very much like the classical case of John\nWesley's family at Epworth in 1726, or the case of the Fox family at\nHydesville near Rochester in 1848, which was the starting-point of\nmodern spiritualism.  Nothing sensational came of our journey, and yet\nit was not entirely barren.  On the first night nothing occurred.  On\nthe second, there were tremendous noises, sounds like someone beating a\ntable with a stick.  We had, of course, taken every precaution, and we\ncould not explain the noises; but at the same time we could not swear\nthat some ingenious practical joke had not been played upon us. There\nthe matter ended for the time.  Some years afterwards, however, I met a\nmember of the family who occupied the house, and he told me that after\nour visit the bones of a child, evidently long buried, had been dug up\nin the garden.  You must admit that this was very remarkable.  Haunted\nhouses are rare, and houses with buried human beings in their gardens\nare also, we will hope, rare.  That they should have both united in one\nhouse is surely some argument for the truth of the phenomena.  It is\ninteresting to remember that in the case of the Fox family there was\nalso some word of human bones and evidence of murder being found in the\ncellar, though an actual crime was never established. I have little\ndoubt that if the Wesley family could have got upon speaking terms with\ntheir persecutor, they would also have come upon some motive for the\npersecution.  It almost seems as if a life cut suddenly and violently\nshort had some store of unspent vitality which could still manifest\nitself in a strange, mischievous fashion.  Later I had another singular\npersonal experience of this sort which I may describe at the end of\nthis argument.[1]\n\n[1]  Vide Appendix III.\n\n\nFrom this period until the time of the War I continued in the leisure\nhours of a very busy life to devote attention to this subject.  I had\nexperience of one series of seances with very amazing results,\nincluding several materializations seen in dim light. As the medium was\ndetected in trickery shortly afterwards I wiped these off entirely as\nevidence.  At the same time I think that the presumption is very clear,\nthat in the case of some mediums like Eusapia Palladino they may be\nguilty of trickery when their powers fail them, and yet at other times\nhave very genuine gifts.  Mediumship in its lowest forms is a purely\nphysical gift with no relation to morality and in many cases it is\nintermittent and cannot be controlled at will.  Eusapia was at least\ntwice convicted of very clumsy and foolish fraud, whereas she several\ntimes sustained long examinations under every possible test condition\nat the hands of scientific committees which contained some of the best\nnames of France, Italy, and England.  However, I personally prefer to\ncut my experience with a discredited medium out of my record, and I\nthink that all physical phenomena produced in the dark must necessarily\nlose much of their value, unless they are accompanied by evidential\nmessages as well.  It is the custom of our critics to assume that if\nyou cut out the mediums who got into trouble you would have to cut out\nnearly all your evidence.  That is not so at all.  Up to the time of\nthis incident I had never sat with a professional medium at all, and\nyet I had certainly accumulated some evidence.  The greatest medium of\nall, Mr. D. D. Home, showed his phenomena in broad daylight, and was\nready to submit to every test and no charge of trickery was ever\nsubstantiated against him.  So it was with many others.  It is only\nfair to state in addition that when a public medium is a fair mark for\nnotoriety hunters, for amateur detectives and for sensational\nreporters, and when he is dealing with obscure elusive phenomena and\nhas to defend himself before juries and judges who, as a rule, know\nnothing about the conditions which influence the phenomena, it would be\nwonderful if a man could get through without an occasional scandal.  At\nthe same time the whole system of paying by results, which is\npractically the present system, since if a medium never gets results he\nwould soon get no payments, is a vicious one.  It is only when the\nprofessional medium can be guaranteed an annuity which will be\nindependent of results, that we can eliminate the strong temptation, to\nsubstitute pretended phenomena when the real ones are wanting.\n\nI have now traced my own evolution of thought up to the time of the\nWar.  I can claim, I hope, that it was deliberate and showed no traces\nof that credulity with which our opponents charge us.  It was too\ndeliberate, for I was culpably slow in throwing any small influence I\nmay possess into the scale of truth.  I might have drifted on for my\nwhole life as a psychical Researcher, showing a sympathetic, but more\nor less dilettante attitude towards the whole subject, as if we were\narguing about some impersonal thing such as the existence of Atlantis\nor the Baconian controversy.  But the War came, and when the War came\nit brought earnestness into all our souls and made us look more closely\nat our own beliefs and reassess their values. In the presence of an\nagonized world, hearing every day of the deaths of the flower of our\nrace in the first promise of their unfulfilled youth, seeing around one\nthe wives and mothers who had no clear conception whither their loved\nones had gone to, I seemed suddenly to see that this subject with which\nI had so long dallied was not merely a study of a force outside the\nrules of science, but that it was really something tremendous, a\nbreaking down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable\nmessage from beyond, a call of hope and of guidance to the human race\nat the time of its deepest affliction.  The objective side of it ceased\nto interest for having made up one's mind that it was true there was an\nend of the matter.  The religious side of it was clearly of infinitely\ngreater importance.  The telephone bell is in itself a very childish\naffair, but it may be the signal for a very vital message.  It seemed\nthat all these phenomena, large and small, had been the telephone bells\nwhich, senseless in themselves, had signalled to the human race:\n\"Rouse yourselves!  Stand by!  Be at attention!  Here are signs for\nyou.  They will lead up to the message which God wishes to send.\"  It\nwas the message not the signs which really counted.  A new revelation\nseemed to be in the course of delivery to the human race, though how\nfar it was still in what may be called the John-the-Baptist stage, and\nhow far some greater fulness and clearness might be expected hereafter,\nwas more than any man can say.  My point is, that the physical\nphenomena which have been proved up to the hilt for all who care to\nexamine the evidence, are really of no account, and that their real\nvalue consists in the fact that they support and give objective reality\nto an immense body of knowledge which must deeply modify our previous\nreligious views, and must, when properly understood and digested, make\nreligion a very real thing, no longer a matter of faith, but a matter\nof actual experience and fact.  It is to this side of the question that\nI will now turn, but I must add to my previous remarks about personal\nexperience that, since the War, I have had some very exceptional\nopportunities of confirming all the views which I had already formed as\nto the truth of the general facts upon which my views are founded.\n\nThese opportunities came through the fact that a lady who lived with\nus, a Miss L. S., developed the power of automatic writing.  Of all\nforms of mediumship, this seems to me to be the one which should be\ntested most rigidly, as it lends itself very easily not so much to\ndeception as to self-deception, which is a more subtle and dangerous\nthing.  Is the lady herself writing, or is there, as she avers, a power\nthat controls her, even as the chronicler of the Jews in the Bible\naverred that he was controlled?  In the case of L. S. there is no\ndenying that some messages proved to be not true--especially in the\nmatter of time they were quite unreliable.  But on the other hand, the\nnumbers which did come true were far beyond what any guessing or\ncoincidence could account for.  Thus, when the Lusitania was sunk and\nthe morning papers here announced that so far as known there was no\nloss of life, the medium at once wrote:  \"It is terrible, terrible--and\nwill have a great influence on the war.\" Since it was the first strong\nimpulse which turned America towards the war, the message was true in\nboth respects.  Again, she foretold the arrival of an important\ntelegram upon a certain day, and even gave the name of the deliverer of\nit--a most unlikely person.  Altogether, no one could doubt the reality\nof her inspiration, though the lapses were notable.  It was like\ngetting a good message through a very imperfect telephone.\n\nOne other incident of the early war days stands out in my memory.  A\nlady in whom I was interested had died in a provincial town.  She was a\nchronic invalid and morphia was found by her bedside.  There was an\ninquest with an open verdict.  Eight days later I went to have a\nsitting with Mr. Vout Peters.  After giving me a good deal which was\nvague and irrelevant, he suddenly said: \"There is a lady here.  She is\nleaning upon an older woman.  She keeps saying 'Morphia.'  Three times\nshe has said it.  Her mind was clouded.  She did not mean it.\nMorphia!\"  Those were almost his exact words. Telepathy was out of the\nquestion, for I had entirely other thoughts in my mind at the time and\nwas expecting no such message.\n\nApart from personal experiences, this movement must gain great\nadditional solidity from the wonderful literature which has sprung up\naround it during the last few years.  If no other spiritual books were\nin existence than five which have appeared in the last year or so--I\nallude to Professor Lodge's Raymond, Arthur Hill's Psychical\nInvestigations, Professor Crawford's Reality of Psychical Phenomena,\nProfessor Barrett's Threshold of the Unseen, and Gerald Balfour's Ear\nof Dionysius--those five alone would, in my opinion, be sufficient to\nestablish the facts for any reasonable enquirer.\n\nBefore going into this question of a new religious revelation, how it\nis reached, and what it consists of, I would say a word upon one other\nsubject.  There have always been two lines of attack by our opponents.\nThe one is that our facts are not true.  This I have dealt with.  The\nother is that we are upon forbidden ground and should come off it and\nleave it alone.  As I started from a position of comparative\nmaterialism, this objection has never had any meaning for me, but to\nothers I would submit one or two considerations.  The chief is that God\nhas given us no power at all which is under no circumstances to be\nused.  The fact that we possess it is in itself proof that it is our\nbounden duty to study and to develop it.  It is true that this, like\nevery other power, may be abused if we lose our general sense of\nproportion and of reason.  But I repeat that its mere possession is a\nstrong reason why it is lawful and binding that it be used.\n\nIt must also be remembered that this cry of illicit knowledge, backed\nby more or less appropriate texts, has been used against every advance\nof human knowledge. It was used against the new astronomy, and Galileo\nhad actually to recant.  It was used against Galvani and electricity.\nIt was used against Darwin, who would certainly have been burned had he\nlived a few centuries before.  It was even used against Simpson's use\nof chloroform in child-birth, on the ground that the Bible declared \"in\npain shall ye bring them forth.\" Surely a plea which has been made so\noften, and so often abandoned, cannot be regarded very seriously.\n\nTo those, however, to whom the theological aspect is still a stumbling\nblock, I would recommend the reading of two short books, each of them\nby clergymen. The one is the Rev. Fielding Ould's Is Spiritualism of\nthe Devil, purchasable for twopence; the other is the Rev. Arthur\nChambers' Our Self After Death.  I can also recommend the Rev. Charles\nTweedale's writings upon the subject.  I may add that when I first\nbegan to make public my own views, one of the first letters of sympathy\nwhich I received was from the late Archdeacon Wilberforce.\n\nThere are some theologians who are not only opposed to such a cult, but\nwho go the length of saying that the phenomena and messages come from\nfiends who personate our dead, or pretend to be heavenly teachers. It\nis difficult to think that those who hold this view have ever had any\npersonal experience of the consoling and uplifting effect of such\ncommunications upon the recipient.  Ruskin has left it on record that\nhis conviction of a future life came from Spiritualism, though he\nsomewhat ungratefully and illogically added that having got that, he\nwished to have no more to do with it.  There are many, however--quorum\npars parva su--who without any reserve can declare that they were\nturned from materialism to a belief in future life, with all that that\nimplies, by the study of this subject.  If this be the devil's work one\ncan only say that the devil seems to be a very bungling workman and to\nget results very far from what he might be expected to desire.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE REVELATION\n\n\nI can now turn with some relief to a more impersonal view of this great\nsubject.  Allusion has been made to a body of fresh doctrine.  Whence\ndoes this come?  It comes in the main through automatic writing where\nthe hand of the human medium is controlled, either by an alleged dead\nhuman being, as in the case of Miss Julia Ames, or by an alleged higher\nteacher, as in that of Mr. Stainton Moses.  These written\ncommunications are supplemented by a vast number of trance utterances,\nand by the verbal messages of spirits, given through the lips of\nmediums. Sometimes it has even come by direct voices, as in the\nnumerous cases detailed by Admiral Usborne Moore in his book The\nVoices.  Occasionally it has come through the family circle and\ntable-tilting, as, for example, in the two cases I have previously\ndetailed within my own experience.  Sometimes, as in a case recorded by\nMrs. de Morgan, it has come through the hand of a child.\n\nNow, of course, we are at once confronted with the obvious\nobjection--how do we know that these messages are really from beyond?\nHow do we know that the medium is not consciously writing, or if that\nbe improbable, that he or she is unconsciously writing them by his or\nher own higher self?  This is a perfectly just criticism, and it is one\nwhich we must rigorously apply in every case, since if the whole world\nis to become full of minor prophets, each of them stating their own\nviews of the religious state with no proof save their own assertion, we\nshould, indeed, be back in the dark ages of implicit faith.  The answer\nmust be that we require signs which we can test before we accept\nassertions which we cannot test.  In old days they demanded a sign from\na prophet, and it was a perfectly reasonable request, and still holds\ngood.  If a person comes to me with an account of life in some further\nworld, and has no credentials save his own assertion, I would rather\nhave it in my waste-paperbasket than on my study table.  Life is too\nshort to weigh the merits of such productions.  But if, as in the case\nof Stainton Moses, with his Spirit Teachings, the doctrines which are\nsaid to come from beyond are accompanied with a great number of\nabnormal gifts--and Stainton Moses was one of the greatest mediums in\nall ways that England has ever produced--then I look upon the matter in\na more serious light.  Again, if Miss Julia Ames can tell Mr. Stead\nthings in her own earth life of which he could not have cognisance, and\nif those things are shown, when tested, to be true, then one is more\ninclined to think that those things which cannot be tested are true\nalso.  Or once again, if Raymond can tell us of a photograph no copy of\nwhich had reached England, and which proved to be exactly as he\ndescribed it, and if he can give us, through the lips of strangers, all\nsorts of details of his home life, which his own relatives had to\nverify before they found them to be true, is it unreasonable to suppose\nthat he is fairly accurate in his description of his own experiences\nand state of life at the very moment at which he is communicating?  Or\nwhen Mr. Arthur Hill receives messages from folk of whom he never\nheard, and afterwards verifies that they are true in every detail, is\nit not a fair inference that they are speaking truths also when they\ngive any light upon their present condition?  The cases are manifold,\nand I mention only a few of them, but my point is that the whole of\nthis system, from the lowest physical phenomenon of a table-rap up to\nthe most inspired utterance of a prophet, is one complete whole, each\nattached to the next one, and that when the humbler end of that chain\nwas placed in the hand of humanity, it was in order that they might, by\ndiligence and reason, feel their way up it until they reached the\nrevelation which waited in the end.  Do not sneer at the humble\nbeginnings, the heaving table or the flying tambourine, however much\nsuch phenomena may have been abused or simulated, but remember that a\nfalling apple taught us gravity, a boiling kettle brought us the steam\nengine, and the twitching leg of a frog opened up the train of thought\nand experiment which gave us electricity. So the lowly manifestations\nof Hydesville have ripened into results which have engaged the finest\ngroup of intellects in this country during the last twenty years, and\nwhich are destined, in my opinion, to bring about far the greatest\ndevelopment of human experience which the world has ever seen.\n\nIt has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a deep\nregard--notably by Sir William Barratt--that psychical research is\nquite distinct from religion.  Certainly it is so, in the sense that a\nman might be a very good psychical researcher but a very bad man.  But\nthe results of psychical research, the deductions which we may draw,\nand the lessons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the\nsoul, of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our\nconduct here.  If this is distinct from religion, I must confess that I\ndo not understand the distinction. To me it IS religion--the very\nessence of it.  But that does not mean that it will necessarily\ncrystallise into a new religion.  Personally I trust that it will not\ndo so.  Surely we are disunited enough already?  Rather would I see it\nthe great unifying force, the one provable thing connected with every\nreligion, Christian or non-Christian, forming the common solid basis\nupon which each raises, if it must needs raise, that separate system\nwhich appeals to the varied types of mind.  The Southern races will\nalways demand what is less austere than the North, the West will always\nbe more critical than the East.  One cannot shape all to a level\nconformity.  But if the broad premises which are guaranteed by this\nteaching from beyond are accepted, then the human race has made a great\nstride towards religious peace and unity.  The question which faces us,\nthen, is how will this influence bear upon the older organised\nreligions and philosophies which have influenced the actions of men.\n\nThe answer is, that to only one of these religions or philosophies is\nthis new revelation absolutely fatal.  That is to Materialism.  I do\nnot say this in any spirit of hostility to Materialists, who, so far as\nthey are an organized body, are, I think, as earnest and moral as any\nother class.  But the fact is manifest that if spirit can live without\nmatter, then the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole\nscheme of thought crashes to the ground.\n\nAs to other creeds, it must be admitted that an acceptance of the\nteaching brought to us from beyond would deeply modify conventional\nChristianity.  But these modifications would be rather in the direction\nof explanation and development than of contradiction.  It would set\nright grave misunderstandings which have always offended the reason of\nevery thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make absolutely\ncertain the fact of life after death, the base of all religion.  It\nwould confirm the unhappy results of sin, though it would show that\nthose results are never absolutely permanent.  It would confirm the\nexistence of higher beings, whom we have called angels, and of an\never-ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its\nplace, culminating in heights of the infinite with which we associate\nthe idea of all-power or of God.  It would confirm the idea of heaven\nand of a temporary penal state which corresponds to purgatory rather\nthan to hell.  Thus this new revelation, on some of the most vital\npoints, is NOT destructive of the beliefs, and it should be hailed by\nreally earnest men of all creeds as a most powerful ally rather than a\ndangerous devil-begotten enemy.\n\nOn the other hand, let us turn to the points in which Christianity must\nbe modified by this new revelation.\n\nFirst of all I would say this, which must be obvious to many, however\nmuch they deplore it: Christianity must change or must perish.  That is\nthe law of life--that things must adapt themselves or perish.\nChristianity has deferred the change very long, she has deferred it\nuntil her churches are half empty, until women are her chief\nsupporters, and until both the learned part of the community on one\nside, and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, are\nlargely alienated from her.  Let us try and trace the reason for this.\nIt is apparent in all sects, and comes, therefore, from some deep\ncommon cause.\n\nPeople are alienated because they frankly do not believe the facts as\npresented to them to be true. Their reason and their sense of justice\nare equally offended.  One can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice,\nnor in the God who could be placated by such means.  Above all, many\ncannot understand such expressions as the \"redemption from sin,\"\n\"cleansed by the blood of the Lamb,\" and so forth.  So long as there\nwas any question of the fall of man there was at least some sort of\nexplanation of such phrases; but when it became certain that man had\nnever fallen--when with ever fuller knowledge we could trace our\nancestral course down through the cave-man and the drift-man, back to\nthat shadowy and far-off time when the man-like ape slowly evolved into\nthe apelike man--looking back on all this vast succession of life, we\nknew that it had always been rising from step to step.  Never was there\nany evidence of a fall.  But if there were no fall, then what became of\nthe atonement, of the redemption, of original sin, of a large part of\nChristian mystical philosophy?  Even if it were as reasonable in itself\nas it is actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from\nthe facts.\n\nAgain, too much seemed to be made of Christ's death.  It is no uncommon\nthing to die for an idea. Every religion has equally had its martyrs.\nMen die continually for their convictions.  Thousands of our lads are\ndoing it at this instant in France.  Therefore the death of Christ,\nbeautiful as it is in the Gospel narrative, has seemed to assume an\nundue importance, as though it were an isolated phenomenon for a man to\ndie in pursuit of a reform.  In my opinion, far too much stress has\nbeen laid upon Christ's death, and far too little upon His life.  That\nwas where the true grandeur and the true lesson lay.  It was a life\nwhich even in those limited records shows us no trait which is not\nbeautiful--a life full of easy tolerance for others, of kindly charity,\nof broad-minded moderation, of gentle courage, always progressive and\nopen to new ideas, and yet never bitter to those ideas which He was\nreally supplanting, though He did occasionally lose His temper with\ntheir more bigoted and narrow supporters. Especially one loves His\nreadiness to get at the spirit of religion, sweeping aside the texts\nand the forms. Never had anyone such a robust common sense, or such a\nsympathy for weakness.  It was this most wonderful and uncommon life,\nand not his death, which is the true centre of the Christian religion.\n\nNow, let us look at the light which we get from the spirit guides upon\nthis question of Christianity. Opinion is not absolutely uniform\nyonder, any more than it is here; but reading a number of messages upon\nthis subject, they amount to this:  There are many higher spirits with\nour departed.  They vary in degree.  Call them \"angels,\" and you are in\ntouch with old religious thought.  High above all these is the greatest\nspirit of whom they have cognizance--not God, since God is so infinite\nthat He is not within their ken--but one who is nearer God and to that\nextent represents God.  This is the Christ Spirit.  His special care is\nthe earth. He came down upon it at a time of great earthly depravity--a\ntime when the world was almost as wicked as it is now, in order to give\nthe people the lesson of an ideal life.  Then he returned to his own\nhigh station, having left an example which is still occasionally\nfollowed.  That is the story of Christ as spirits have described it.\nThere is nothing here of Atonement or Redemption.  But there is a\nperfectly feasible and reasonable scheme, which I, for one, could\nreadily believe.\n\nIf such a view of Christianity were generally accepted, and if it were\nenforced by assurance and demonstration from the New Revelation which\nis coming to us from the other side, then we should have a creed which\nmight unite the churches, which might be reconciled to science, which\nmight defy all attacks, and which might carry the Christian Faith on\nfor an indefinite period.  Reason and Faith would at last be\nreconciled, a nightmare would be lifted from our minds, and spiritual\npeace would prevail.  I do not see such results coming as a sudden\nconquest or a violent revolution.  Rather will it come as a peaceful\npenetration, as some crude ideas, such as the Eternal Hell idea, have\nalready gently faded away within our own lifetime.  It is, however,\nwhen the human soul is ploughed and harrowed by suffering that the\nseeds of truth may be planted, and so some future spiritual harvest\nwill surely rise from the days in which we live.\n\nWhen I read the New Testament with the knowledge which I have of\nSpiritualism, I am left with a deep conviction that the teaching of\nChrist was in many most important respects lost by the early Church,\nand has not come down to us.  All these allusions to a conquest over\ndeath have, as it seems to me, little meaning in the present Christian\nphilosophy, whereas for those who have seen, however dimly, through the\nveil, and touched, however slightly, the outstretched hands beyond,\ndeath has indeed been conquered.  When we read so many references to\nthe phenomena with which we are familiar, the levitations, the tongues\nof fire, the rushing wind, the spiritual gifts, the working of wonders,\nwe feel that the central fact of all, the continuity of life and the\ncommunication with the dead, was most certainly known.  Our attention\nis arrested by such a saying as:  \"Here he worked no wonders because\nthe people were wanting in faith.\"  Is this not absolutely in\naccordance with psychic law as we know it?  Or when Christ, on being\ntouched by the sick woman, said:  \"Who has touched me?  Much virtue has\npassed out of me.\"  Could He say more clearly what a healing medium\nwould say now, save that He would use the word \"Power\" instead of\n\"virtue\"; or when we read: \"Try the spirits whether they be of God,\" is\nit not the very, advice which would now be given to a novice\napproaching a seance?  It is too large a question for me to do more\nthan indicate, but I believe that this subject, which the more rigid\nChristian churches now attack so bitterly, is really the central\nteaching of Christianity itself.  To those who would read more upon\nthis line of thought, I strongly recommend Dr. Abraham Wallace's Jesus\nof Nazareth, if this valuable little work is not out of print.  He\ndemonstrates in it most convincingly that Christ's miracles were all\nwithin the powers of psychic law as we now understand it, and were on\nthe exact lines of such law even in small details.  Two examples have\nalready been given.  Many are worked out in that pamphlet.  One which\nconvinced me as a truth was the thesis that the story of the\nmaterialization of the two prophets upon the mountain was\nextraordinarily accurate when judged by psychic law.  There is the fact\nthat Peter, James and John (who formed the psychic circle when the dead\nwas restored to life, and were presumably the most helpful of the\ngroup) were taken.  Then there is the choice of the high pure air of\nthe mountain, the drowsiness of the attendant mediums, the\ntransfiguring, the shining robes, the cloud, the words:  \"Let us make\nthree tabernacles,\" with its alternate reading:  \"Let us make three\nbooths or cabinets\" (the ideal way of condensing power and producing\nmaterializations)--all these make a very consistent theory of the\nnature of the proceedings.  For the rest, the list of gifts which St.\nPaul gives as being necessary for the Christian Disciple, is simply the\nlist of gifts of a very powerful medium, including prophecy, healing,\ncausing miracles (or physical phenomena), clairvoyance, and other\npowers (I Corinth, xii, 8, 11).  The early Christian Church was\nsaturated with spiritualism, and they seem to have paid no attention to\nthose Old Testament prohibitions which were meant to keep these powers\nonly for the use and profit of the priesthood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE COMING LIFE\n\n\nNow, leaving this large and possibly contentious subject of the\nmodifications which such new revelations must produce in Christianity,\nlet us try to follow what occurs to man after death.  The evidence on\nthis point is fairly full and consistent.  Messages from the dead have\nbeen received in many lands at various times, mixed up with a good deal\nabout this world, which we could verify.  When messages come thus, it\nis only fair, I think, to suppose that if what we can test is true,\nthen what we cannot test is true also.  When in addition we find a very\ngreat uniformity in the messages and an agreement as to details which\nare not at all in accordance with any pre-existing scheme of thought,\nthen I think the presumption of truth is very strong.  It is difficult\nto think that some fifteen or twenty messages from various sources of\nwhich I have personal notes, all agree, and yet are all wrong, nor is\nit easy to suppose that spirits can tell the truth about our world but\nuntruth about their own.\n\nI received lately, in the same week, two accounts of life in the next\nworld, one received through the hand of the near relative of a high\ndignitary of the Church, while the other came through the wife of a\nworking mechanician in Scotland.  Neither could have been aware of the\nexistence of the other, and yet the two accounts are so alike as to be\npractically the same.[2]\n\n[2]  Vide Appendix II.\n\n\nThe message upon these points seems to me to be infinitely reassuring,\nwhether we regard our own fate or that of our friends.  The departed\nall agree that passing is usually both easy and painless, and followed\nby an enormous reaction of peace and ease.  The individual finds\nhimself in a spirit body, which is the exact counterpart of his old\none, save that all disease, weakness, or deformity has passed from it.\nThis body is standing or floating beside the old body, and conscious\nboth of it and of the surrounding people.  At this moment the dead man\nis nearer to matter than he will ever be again, and hence it is that at\nthat moment the greater part of those cases occur where, his thoughts\nhaving turned to someone in the distance, the spirit body went with the\nthoughts and was manifest to the person.  Out of some 250 cases\ncarefully examined by Mr. Gurney, 134 of such apparitions were actually\nat this moment of dissolution, when one could imagine that the new\nspirit body was possibly so far material as to be more visible to a\nsympathetic human eye than it would later become.\n\nThese cases, however, are very rare in comparison with the total number\nof deaths.  In most cases I imagine that the dead man is too\npreoccupied with his own amazing experience to have much thought for\nothers. He soon finds, to his surprise, that though he endeavours to\ncommunicate with those whom he sees, his ethereal voice and his\nethereal touch are equally unable to make any impression upon those\nhuman organs which are only attuned to coarser stimuli.  It is a fair\nsubject for speculation, whether a fuller knowledge of those light rays\nwhich we know to exist on either side of the spectrum, or of those\nsounds which we can prove by the vibrations of a diaphragm to exist,\nalthough they are too high for mortal ear, may not bring us some\nfurther psychical knowledge.  Setting that aside, however, let us\nfollow the fortunes of the departing spirit.  He is presently aware\nthat there are others in the room besides those who were there in life,\nand among these others, who seem to him as substantial as the living,\nthere appear familiar faces, and he finds his hand grasped or his lips\nkissed by those whom he had loved and lost.  Then in their company, and\nwith the help and guidance of some more radiant being who has stood by\nand waited for the newcomer, he drifts to his own surprise through all\nsolid obstacles and out upon his new life.\n\nThis is a definite statement, and this is the story told by one after\nthe other with a consistency which impels belief.  It is already very\ndifferent from any old theology.  The Spirit is not a glorified angel\nor goblin damned, but it is simply the person himself, containing all\nhis strength and weakness, his wisdom and his folly, exactly as he has\nretained his personal appearance.  We can well believe that the most\nfrivolous and foolish would be awed into decency by so tremendous an\nexperience, but impressions soon become blunted, the old nature may\nsoon reassert itself in new surroundings, and the frivolous still\nsurvive, as our seance rooms can testify.\n\nAnd now, before entering upon his new life, the new Spirit has a period\nof sleep which varies in its length, sometimes hardly existing at all,\nat others extending for weeks or months.  Raymond said that his lasted\nfor six days.  That was the period also in a case of which I had some\npersonal evidence.  Mr. Myers, on the other hand, said that he had a\nvery prolonged period of unconsciousness.  I could imagine that the\nlength is regulated by the amount of trouble or mental preoccupation of\nthis life, the longer rest giving the better means of wiping this out.\nProbably the little child would need no such interval at all.  This, of\ncourse, is pure speculation, but there is a considerable consensus of\nopinion as to the existence of a period of oblivion after the first\nimpression of the new life and before entering upon its duties.\n\nHaving wakened from this sleep, the spirit is weak, as the child is\nweak after earth birth.  Soon, however, strength returns and the new\nlife begins.  This leads us to the consideration of heaven and hell.\nHell, I may say, drops out altogether, as it has long dropped out of\nthe thoughts of every reasonable man.  This odious conception, so\nblasphemous in its view of the Creator, arose from the exaggerations of\nOriental phrases, and may perhaps have been of service in a coarse age\nwhere men were frightened by fires, as wild beasts are seared by the\ntravellers.  Hell as a permanent place does not exist.  But the idea of\npunishment, of purifying chastisement, in fact of Purgatory, is\njustified by the reports from the other side.  Without such punishment\nthere could be no justice in the Universe, for how impossible it would\nbe to imagine that the fate of a Rasputin is the same as that of a\nFather Damien.  The punishment is very certain and very serious, though\nin its less severe forms it only consists in the fact that the grosser\nsouls are in lower spheres with a knowledge that their own deeds have\nplaced them there, but also with the hope that expiation and the help\nof those above them will educate them and bring them level with the\nothers. In this saving process the higher spirits find part of their\nemployment.  Miss Julia Ames in her beautiful posthumous book, says in\nmemorable words:  \"The greatest joy of Heaven is emptying Hell.\"\n\nSetting aside those probationary spheres, which should perhaps rather\nbe looked upon as a hospital for weakly souls than as a penal\ncommunity, the reports from the other world are all agreed as to the\npleasant conditions of life in the beyond.  They agree that like goes\nto like, that all who love or who have interests in common are united,\nthat life is full of interest and of occupation, and that they would by\nno means desire to return.  All of this is surely tidings of great joy,\nand I repeat that it is not a vague faith or hope, but that it is\nsupported by all the laws of evidence which agree that where many\nindependent witnesses give a similar account, that account has a claim\nto be considered a true one.  If it were an account of glorified souls\npurged instantly from all human weakness and of a constant ecstasy of\nadoration round the throne of the all powerful, it might well be\nsuspected as being the mere reflection of that popular theology which\nall the mediums had equally received in their youth.  It is, however,\nvery different to any preexisting system.  It is also supported, as I\nhave already pointed out, not merely by the consistency of the\naccounts, but by the fact that the accounts are the ultimate product of\na long series of phenomena, all of which have been attested as true by\nthose who have carefully examined them.\n\nIn connection with the general subject of life after death, people may\nsay we have got this knowledge already through faith.  But faith,\nhowever beautiful in the individual, has always in collective bodies\nbeen a very two-edged quality.  All would be well if every faith were\nalike and the intuitions of the human race were constant.  We know that\nit is not so.  Faith means to say that you entirely believe a thing\nwhich you cannot prove.  One man says:  \"My faith is THIS.\"  Another\nsays:  \"My faith is THAT.\" Neither can prove it, so they wrangle for\never, either mentally or in the old days physically.  If one is\nstronger than the other, he is inclined to persecute him just to twist\nhim round to the true faith.  Because Philip the Second's faith was\nstrong and clear he, quite logically, killed a hundred thousand\nLowlanders in the hope that their fellow countrymen would be turned to\nthe all-important truth.  Now, if it were recognised that it is by no\nmeans virtuous to claim what you could not prove, we should then be\ndriven to observe facts, to reason from them, and perhaps reach common\nagreement.  That is why this psychical movement appears so valuable.\nIts feet are on something more solid than texts or traditions or\nintuitions.  It is religion from the double point of view of both\nworlds up to date, instead of the ancient traditions of one world.\n\nWe cannot look upon this coming world as a tidy Dutch garden of a place\nwhich is so exact that it can easily be described.  It is probable that\nthose messengers who come back to us are all, more or less, in one\nstate of development and represent the same wave of life as it recedes\nfrom our shores. Communications usually come from those who have not\nlong passed over, and tend to grow fainter, as one would expect.  It is\ninstructive in this respect to notice that Christ's reappearances to\nhis disciples or to Paul, are said to have been within a very few years\nof his death, and that there is no claim among the early Christians to\nhave seen him later.  The cases of spirits who give good proof of\nauthenticity and yet have passed some time are not common.  There is,\nin Mr. Dawson Roger's life, a very good case of a spirit who called\nhimself Manton, and claimed to have been born at Lawrence Lydiard and\nburied at Stoke Newington in 1677. It was clearly shown afterwards that\nthere was such a man, and that he was Oliver Cromwell's chaplain.  So\nfar as my own reading goes, this is the oldest spirit who is on record\nas returning, and generally they are quite recent.  Hence, one gets all\none's views from the one generation, as it were, and we cannot take\nthem as final, but only as partial.  How spirits may see things in a\ndifferent light as they progress in the other world is shown by Miss\nJulia Ames, who was deeply impressed at first by the necessity of\nforming a bureau of communication, but admitted, after fifteen years,\nthat not one spirit in a million among the main body upon the further\nside ever wanted to communicate with us at all since their own loved\nones had come over. She had been misled by the fact that when she first\npassed over everyone she met was newly arrived like herself.\n\nThus the account we give may be partial, but still such as it is it is\nvery consistent and of extraordinary interest, since it refers to our\nown destiny and that of those we love.  All agree that life beyond is\nfor a limited period, after which they pass on to yet other phases, but\napparently there is more communication between these phases than there\nis between us and Spiritland.  The lower cannot ascend, but the higher\ncan descend at will.  The life has a close analogy to that of this\nworld at it its best.  It is pre-eminently a life of the mind, as this\nis of the body.  Preoccupations of food, money, lust, pain, etc., are\nof the body and are gone.  Music, the Arts, intellectual and spiritual\nknowledge, and progress have increased.  The people are clothed, as one\nwould expect, since there is no reason why modesty should disappear\nwith our new forms.  These new forms are the absolute reproduction of\nthe old ones at their best, the young growing up and the old reverting\nuntil all come to the normal.  People live in communities, as one would\nexpect if like attracts like, and the male spirit still finds his true\nmate though there is no sexuality in the grosser sense and no\nchildbirth.  Since connections still endure, and those in the same\nstate of development keep abreast, one would expect that nations are\nstill roughly divided from each other, though language is no longer a\nbar, since thought has become a medium of conversation.  How close is\nthe connection between kindred souls over there is shown by the way in\nwhich Myers, Gurney and Roden Noel, all friends and co-workers on\nearth, sent messages together through Mrs. Holland, who knew none of\nthem, each message being characteristic to those who knew the men in\nlife--or the way in which Professor Verrall and Professor Butcher, both\nfamous Greek scholars, collaborated to produce the Greek problem which\nhas been analysed by Mr. Gerald Balfour in The Ear of Dionysius, with\nthe result that that excellent authority testified that the effect\nCOULD have been attained by no other entities, save only Verrall and\nButcher.  It may be remarked in passing that these and other examples\nshow clearly either that the spirits have the use of an excellent\nreference library or else that they have memories which produce\nsomething like omniscience.  No human memory could possibly carry all\nthe exact quotations which occur in such communications as The Ear of\nDionysius.\n\nThese, roughly speaking, are the lines of the life beyond in its\nsimplest expression, for it is not all simple, and we catch dim\nglimpses of endless circles below descending into gloom and endless\ncircles above, ascending into glory, all improving, all purposeful, all\nintensely alive.  All are agreed that no religion upon earth has any\nadvantage over another, but that character and refinement are\neverything.  At the same time, all are also in agreement that all\nreligions which inculcate prayer, and an upward glance rather than eyes\nfor ever on the level, are good.  In this sense, and in no other--as a\nhelp to spiritual life--every form may have a purpose for somebody.  If\nto twirl a brass cylinder forces the Thibetan to admit that there is\nsomething higher than his mountains, and more precious than his yaks,\nthen to that extent it is good.  We must not be censorious in such\nmatters.\n\nThere is one point which may be mentioned here which is at first\nstartling and yet must commend itself to our reason when we reflect\nupon it.  This is the constant assertion from the other side that the\nnewly passed do not know that they are dead, and that it is a long\ntime, sometimes a very long time, before they can be made to understand\nit.  All of them agree that this state of bewilderment is harmful and\nretarding to the spirit, and that some knowledge of the actual truth\nupon this side is the only way to make sure of not being dazed upon the\nother.  Finding conditions entirely different from anything for which\neither scientific or religious teaching had prepared them, it is no\nwonder that they look upon their new sensations as some strange dream,\nand the more rigidly orthodox have been their views, the more\nimpossible do they find it to accept these new surroundings with all\nthat they imply.  For this reason, as well as for many others, this new\nrevelation is a very needful thing for mankind.  A smaller point of\npractical importance is that the aged should realise that it is still\nworth while to improve their minds, for though they have no time to use\ntheir fresh knowledge in this world it will remain as part of their\nmental outfit in the next.\n\nAs to the smaller details of this life beyond, it is better perhaps not\nto treat them, for the very good reason that they are small details.\nWe will learn them all soon for ourselves, and it is only vain\ncuriosity which leads us to ask for them now.  One thing is clear:\nthere are higher intelligences over yonder to whom synthetic chemistry,\nwhich not only makes the substance but moulds the form, is a matter of\nabsolute ease.  We see them at work in the coarser media, perceptible\nto our material senses, in the seance room.  If they can build up\nsimulacra in the seance room, how much may we expect them to do when\nthey are working upon ethereal objects in that ether which is their own\nmedium.  It may be said generally that they can make something which is\nanalogous to anything which exists upon earth.  How they do it may well\nbe a matter of guess and speculation among the less advanced spirits,\nas the phenomena of modern science are a matter of guess and\nspeculation to us. If one of us were suddenly called up by the denizen\nof some sub-human world, and were asked to explain exactly what gravity\nis, or what magnetism is, how helpless we should be!  We may put\nourselves in the position, then, of a young engineer soldier like\nRaymond Lodge, who tries to give some theory of matter in the beyond--a\ntheory which is very likely contradicted by some other spirit who is\nalso guessing at things above him.  He may be right, or he may be\nwrong, but he is doing his best to say what he thinks, as we should do\nin similar case.  He believes that his transcendental chemists can make\nanything, and that even such unspiritual matter as alcohol or tobacco\ncould come within their powers and could still be craved for by\nunregenerate spirits.  This has tickled the critics to such an extent\nthat one would really think to read the comments that it was the only\nstatement in a book which contains 400 closely-printed pages.  Raymond\nmay be right or wrong, but the only thing which the incident proves to\nme is the unflinching courage and honesty of the man who chronicled it,\nknowing well the handle that he was giving to his enemies.\n\nThere are many who protest that this world which is described to us is\ntoo material for their liking.  It is not as they would desire it.\nWell, there are many things in this world which seem different from\nwhat we desire, but they exist none the less.  But when we come to\nexamine this charge of materialism and try to construct some sort of\nsystem which would satisfy the idealists, it becomes a very difficult\ntask.  Are we to be mere wisps of gaseous happiness floating about in\nthe air?  That seems to be the idea.  But if there is no body like our\nown, and if there is no character like our own, then say what you will,\nWE have become extinct.  What is it to a mother if some impersonal\nglorified entity is shown to her?  She will say, \"that is not the son I\nlost--I want his yellow hair, his quick smile, his little moods that I\nknow so well.\"  That is what she wants; that, I believe, is what she\nwill have; but she will not have them by any system which cuts us away\nfrom all that reminds us of matter and takes us to a vague region of\nfloating emotions.\n\nThere is an opposite school of critics which rather finds the\ndifficulty in picturing a life which has keen perceptions, robust\nemotions, and a solid surrounding all constructed in so diaphanous a\nmaterial.  Let us remember that everything depends upon its comparison\nwith the things around it.\n\nIf we could conceive of a world a thousand times denser, heavier and\nduller than this world, we can clearly see that to its inmates it would\nseem much the same as this, since their strength and texture would be\nin proportion.  If, however, these inmates came in contact with us,\nthey would look upon us as extraordinarily airy beings living in a\nstrange, light, spiritual atmosphere.  They would not remember that we\nalso, since our beings and our surroundings are in harmony and in\nproportion to each other, feel and act exactly as they do.\n\nWe have now to consider the case of yet another stratum of life, which\nis as much above us as the leaden community would be below us.  To us\nalso it seems as if these people, these spirits, as we call them, live\nthe lives of vapour and of shadows.  We do not recollect that there\nalso everything is in proportion and in harmony so that the spirit\nscene or the spirit dwelling, which might seem a mere dream thing to\nus, is as actual to the spirit as are our own scenes or our own\ndwellings, and that the spirit body is as real and tangible to another\nspirit as ours to our friends.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nPROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS\n\n\nLeaving for a moment the larger argument as to the lines of this\nrevelation and the broad proofs of its validity, there are some smaller\npoints which have forced themselves upon my attention during the\nconsideration of the subject.  This home of our dead seems to be very\nnear to us--so near that we continually, as they tell us, visit them in\nour sleep. Much of that quiet resignation which we have all observed in\npeople who have lost those whom they loved--people who would in our\nprevious opinion have been driven mad by such loss--is due to the fact\nthat they have seen their dead, and that although the switch-off is\ncomplete and they can recall nothing whatever of the spirit experience\nin sleep, the soothing result of it is still carried on by the\nsubconscious self.  The switch-off is, as I say, complete, but\nsometimes for some reason it is hung up for a fraction of a second, and\nit is at such moments that the dreamer comes back from  his dream\n\"trailing clouds of glory.\"  From this also come all those prophetic\ndreams many of which are well attested. I have had a recent personal\nexperience of one which has not yet perhaps entirely justified itself\nbut is even now remarkable.  Upon April 4th of last year, 1917, I awoke\nwith a feeling that some communication had been made to me of which I\nhad only carried back one word which was ringing in my head.  That word\nwas \"Piave.\"  To the best of my belief I had never heard the word\nbefore.  As it sounded like the name of a place I went into my study\nthe moment I had dressed and I looked up the index of my Atlas.  There\nwas \"Piave\" sure enough, and I noted that it was a river in Italy some\nforty miles behind the front line, which at that time was victoriously\nadvancing.  I could imagine few more unlikely things than that the war\nshould roll back to the Piave, and I could not think how any military\nevent of consequence could arise there, but none the less I was so\nimpressed that I drew up a statement that some such event would occur\nthere, and I had it signed by my secretary and witnessed by my wife\nwith the date, April 4th, attached.  It is a matter of history how six\nmonths later the whole Italian line fell back, how it abandoned\nsuccessive positions upon rivers, and how it stuck upon this stream\nwhich was said by military critics to be strategically almost\nuntenable.  If nothing more should occur (I write upon February 20th,\n1918), the reference to the name has been fully justified, presuming\nthat some friend in the beyond was forecasting the coming events of the\nwar.  I have still a hope, however, that more was meant, and that some\ncrowning victory of the Allies at this spot may justify still further\nthe strange way in which the name was conveyed to my mind.\n\nPeople may well cry out against this theory of sleep on the grounds\nthat all the grotesque, monstrous and objectionable dreams which plague\nus cannot possibly come from a high source.  On this point I have a\nvery definite theory, which may perhaps be worthy of discussion.  I\nconsider that there are two forms of dreams, and only two, the\nexperiences of the released spirit, and the confused action of the\nlower faculties which remain in the body when the spirit is absent. The\nformer is rare and beautiful, for the memory of it fails us.  The\nlatter are common and varied, but usually fantastic or ignoble.  By\nnoting what is absent in the lower dreams one can tell what the missing\nqualities are, and so judge what part of us goes to make up the spirit.\nThus in these dreams humour is wanting, since we see things which\nstrike us afterwards as ludicrous, and are not amused.  The sense of\nproportion and of judgment and of aspiration is all gone.  In short,\nthe higher is palpably gone, and the lower, the sense of fear, of\nsensual impression, of self-preservation, is functioning all the more\nvividly because it is relieved from the higher control.\n\nThe limitations of the powers of spirits is a subject which is brought\nhome to one in these studies. People say, \"If they exist why don't they\ndo this or that!\"  The answer usually is that they can't.  They appear\nto have very fixed limitations like our own. This seemed to be very\nclearly brought out in the cross-correspondence experiments where\nseveral writing mediums were operating at a distance quite\nindependently of each other, and the object was to get agreement which\nwas beyond the reach of coincidence. The spirits seem to know exactly\nwhat they impress upon the minds of the living, but they do not know\nhow far they carry their instruction out.  Their touch with us is\nintermittent.  Thus, in the cross-correspondence experiments we\ncontinually have them asking, \"Did you get that?\" or \"Was it all\nright?\"  Sometimes they have partial cognisance of what is done, as\nwhere Myers says:  \"I saw the circle, but was not sure about the\ntriangle.\"  It is everywhere apparent that their spirits, even the\nspirits of those who, like Myers and Hodgson, were in specially close\ntouch with psychic subjects, and knew all that could be done, were in\ndifficulties when they desired to get cognisance of a material thing,\nsuch as a written document.  Only, I should imagine, by partly\nmaterialising themselves could they do so, and they may not have had\nthe power of self-materialization.  This consideration throws some\nlight upon the famous case, so often used by our opponents, where Myers\nfailed to give some word or phrase which had been left behind in a\nsealed box. Apparently he could not see this document from his present\nposition, and if his memory failed him he would be very likely to go\nwrong about it.\n\nMany mistakes may, I think, be explained in this fashion.  It has been\nasserted from the other side, and the assertion seems to me reasonable,\nthat when they speak of their own conditions they are speaking of what\nthey know and can readily and surely discuss; but that when we insist\n(as we must sometimes insist) upon earthly tests, it drags them back to\nanother plane of things, and puts them in a position which is far more\ndifficult, and liable to error.\n\nAnother point which is capable of being used against us is this:  The\nspirits have the greatest difficulty in getting names through to us,\nand it is this which makes many of their communications so vague and\nunsatisfactory.  They will talk all round a thing, and yet never get\nthe name which would clinch the matter.  There is an example of the\npoint in a recent communication in Light, which describes how a young\nofficer, recently dead, endeavoured to get a message through the direct\nvoice method of Mrs. Susannah Harris to his father.  He could not get\nhis name through.  He was able, however, to make it clear that his\nfather was a member of the Kildare Street Club in Dublin.  Inquiry\nfound the father, and it was then learned that the father had already\nreceived an independent message in Dublin to say that an inquiry was\ncoming through from London.  I do not know if the earth name is a\nmerely ephemeral thing, quite disconnected from the personality, and\nperhaps the very first thing to be thrown aside.  That is, of course,\npossible.  Or it may be that some law regulates our intercourse from\nthe other side by which it shall not be too direct, and shall leave\nsomething to our own intelligence.\n\nThis idea, that there is some law which makes an indirect speech more\neasy than a direct one, is greatly borne out by the\ncross-correspondences, where circumlocution continually takes the place\nof assertion.  Thus, in the St. Paul correspondence, which is treated\nin the July pamphlet of the S.P.R., the idea of St. Paul was to be\nconveyed from one automatic writer to two others, both of whom were at\na distance, one of them in India.  Dr. Hodgson was the spirit who\nprofessed to preside over this experiment.  You would think that the\nsimple words \"St. Paul\" occurring in the other scripts would be\nall-sufficient.  But no; he proceeds to make all sorts of indirect\nallusions, to talk all round St. Paul in each of the scripts, and to\nmake five quotations from St. Paul's writings.  This is beyond\ncoincidence, and quite convincing, but none the less it illustrates the\ncurious way in which they go round instead of going straight.  If one\ncould imagine some wise angel on the other side saying, \"Now, don't\nmake it too easy for these people.  Make them use their own brains a\nlittle.  They will become mere automatons if we do everything for\nthem\"--if we could imagine that, it would just cover the case.\nWhatever the explanation, it is a noteworthy fact.\n\nThere is another point about spirit communications which is worth\nnoting.  This is their uncertainty wherever any time element comes in.\nTheir estimate of time is almost invariably wrong.  Earth time is\nprobably a different idea to spirit time, and hence the confusion.  We\nhad the advantage, as I have stated, of the presence of a lady in our\nhousehold who developed writing mediumship.  She was in close touch\nwith three brothers, all of whom had been killed in the war.  This\nlady, conveying messages from her brothers, was hardly ever entirely\nwrong upon facts, and hardly ever right about time.  There was one\nnotable exception, however, which in itself is suggestive.  Although\nher prophecies as to public events were weeks or even months out, she\nin one case foretold the arrival of a telegram from Africa to the day.\nNow the telegram had already been sent, but was delayed, so that the\ninference seems to be that she could foretell a course of events which\nhad actually been set in motion, and calculate how long they would take\nto reach their end.  On the other hand, I am bound to admit that she\nconfidently prophesied the escape of her fourth brother, who was a\nprisoner in Germany, and that this was duly fulfilled. On the whole I\npreserve an open mind upon the powers and limitations of prophecy.\n\nBut apart from all these limitations we have, unhappily, to deal with\nabsolute coldblooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous\nintelligences. Everyone who has investigated the matter has, I suppose,\nmet with examples of wilful deception, which occasionally are mixed up\nwith good and true communications.  It was of such messages, no doubt,\nthat the Apostle wrote when he said:  \"Beloved, believe, not every\nspirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.\"  These words can\nonly mean that the early Christians not only practised Spiritualism as\nwe understand it, but also that they were faced by the same\ndifficulties.  There is nothing more puzzling than the fact that one\nmay get a long connected description with every detail given, and that\nit may prove to be entirely a concoction.  However, we must bear in\nmind that if one case comes absolutely correct, it atones for many\nfailures, just as if you had one telegram correct you would know that\nthere was a line and a communicator, however much they broke down\nafterwards.  But it must be admitted that it is very discomposing and\nmakes one sceptical of messages until they are tested.  Of a kin with\nthese false influences are all the Miltons who cannot scan, and\nShelleys who cannot rhyme, and Shakespeares who cannot think, and all\nthe other absurd impersonations which make our cause ridiculous.  They\nare, I think, deliberate frauds, either from this side or from the\nother, but to say that they invalidate the whole subject is as\nsenseless as to invalidate our own world because we encounter some\nunpleasant people.\n\nOne thing I can truly say, and that is, that in spite of false\nmessages, I have never in all these years known a blasphemous, an\nunkind, or an obscene message.  Such incidents must be of very\nexceptional nature.  I think also that, so far as allegations\nconcerning insanity, obsession, and so forth go, they are entirely\nimaginary.  Asylum statistics do not bear out such assertions, and\nmediums live to as good an average age as anyone else.  I think,\nhowever, that the cult of the seance may be very much overdone.  When\nonce you have convinced yourself of the truth of the phenomena the\nphysical seance has done its work, and the man or woman who spends his\nor her life in running from seance to seance is in danger of becoming a\nmere sensation hunter.  Here, as in other cults, the form is in danger\nof eclipsing the real thing, and in pursuit of physical proofs one may\nforget that the real object of all these things is, as I have tried to\npoint out, to give us assurance in the future and spiritual strength in\nthe present, to attain a due perception of the passing nature of matter\nand the all-importance of that which is immaterial.\n\nThe conclusion, then, of my long search after truth, is that in spite\nof occasional fraud, which Spiritualists deplore, and in spite of wild\nimaginings, which they discourage, there remains a great solid core in\nthis movement which is infinitely nearer to positive proof than any\nother religious development  with which I am acquainted.  As I have\nshown, it would appear to be a rediscovery rather than an absolutely\nnew thing, but the result in this material age is the same.  The days\nare surely passing when the mature and considered opinions of such men\nas Crookes, Wallace, Flammarion, Chas. Richet, Lodge, Barrett,\nLombroso, Generals Drayson and Turner, Sergeant Ballantyne, W. T.\nStead, Judge Edmunds, Admiral Usborne Moore, the late Archdeacon\nWilberforce, and such a cloud of other witnesses, can be dismissed with\nthe empty \"All rot\" or \"Nauseating drivel\" formulae.  As Mr. Arthur\nHill has well said, we have reached a point where further proof is\nsuperfluous, and where the weight of disproof lies upon those who deny.\nThe very people who clamour for proofs have as a rule never taken the\ntrouble to examine the copious proofs which already exist.  Each seems\nto think that the whole subject should begin de novo because he has\nasked for information.  The method of our opponents is to fasten upon\nthe latest man who has stated the case--at the present instant it\nhappens to be Sir Oliver Lodge--and then to deal with him as if he had\ncome forward with some new opinions which rested entirely upon his own\nassertion, with no reference to the corroboration of so many\nindependent workers before him.  This is not an honest method of\ncriticism, for in every case the agreement of witnesses is the very\nroot of conviction.  But as a matter of fact, there are many single\nwitnesses upon whom this case could rest.  If, for example, our only\nknowledge of unknown forces depended upon the researches of Dr.\nCrawford of Belfast, who places his amateur medium in a weighing chair\nwith her feet from the ground, and has been able to register a\ndifference of weight of many pounds, corresponding with the physical\nphenomena produced, a result which he has tested and recorded in a true\nscientific spirit of caution, I do not see how it could be shaken.  The\nphenomena are and have long been firmly established for every open\nmind.  One feels that the stage of investigation is passed, and that of\nreligious construction is overdue.\n\nFor are we to satisfy ourselves by observing phenomena with no\nattention to what the phenomena mean, as a group of savages might stare\nat a wireless installation with no appreciation of the messages coming\nthrough it, or are we resolutely to set ourselves to define these\nsubtle and elusive utterances from beyond, and to construct from them a\nreligious scheme, which will be founded upon human reason on this side\nand upon spirit inspiration upon the other?  These phenomena have\npassed through the stage of being a parlour game; they are now emerging\nfrom that of a debatable scientific novelty; and they are, or should\nbe, taking shape as the foundations of a definite system of religious\nthought, in some ways confirmatory of ancient systems, in some ways\nentirely new.  The evidence upon which this system rests is so enormous\nthat it would take a very considerable library to contain it, and the\nwitnesses are not shadowy people living in the dim past and\ninaccessible to our cross-examination, but are our own contemporaries,\nmen of character and intellect whom all must respect.  The situation\nmay, as it seems to me, be summed up in a simple alternative.  The one\nsupposition is that there has been an outbreak of lunacy extending over\ntwo generations of mankind, and two great continents--a lunacy which\nassails men or women who are otherwise eminently sane.  The alternative\nsupposition is that in recent years there has come to us from divine\nsources a new revelation which constitutes by far the greatest\nreligious event since the death of Christ (for the Reformation was a\nre-arrangement of the old, not a revelation of the new), a revelation\nwhich alters the whole aspect of death and the fate of man.  Between\nthese two suppositions there is no solid position. Theories of fraud or\nof delusion will not meet the evidence.  It is absolute lunacy or it is\na revolution in religious thought, a revolution which gives us as\nby-products an utter fearlessness of death, and an immense consolation\nwhen those who are dear to us pass behind the veil.\n\nI should like to add a few practical words to those who know the truth\nof what I say.  We have here an enormous new development, the greatest\nin the history of mankind.  How are we to use it?  We are bound in\nhonour, I think, to state our own belief, especially to those who are\nin trouble.  Having stated it, we should not force it, but leave the\nrest to higher wisdom than our own.  We wish to subvert no religion.\nWe wish only to bring back the material-minded--to take them out of\ntheir cramped valley and put them on the ridge, whence they can breathe\npurer air and see other valleys and other ridges beyond. Religions are\nmostly petrified and decayed, overgrown with forms and choked with\nmysteries.  We can prove that there is no need for this.  All that is\nessential is both very simple and very sure.\n\nThe clear call for our help comes from those who have had a loss and\nwho yearn to re-establish connection.  This also can be overdone.  If\nyour boy were in Australia, you would not expect him to continually\nstop his work and write long letters at all seasons.  Having got in\ntouch, be moderate in your demands.  Do not be satisfied with any\nevidence short of the best, but having got that, you can, it seems to\nme, wait for that short period when we shall all be re-united.  I am in\ntouch at present with thirteen mothers who are in correspondence with\ntheir dead sons.  In each case, the husband, where he is alive, is\nagreed as to the evidence.  In only one case so far as I know was the\nparent acquainted with psychic matters before the war.\n\nSeveral of these cases have peculiarities of their own.  In two of them\nthe figures of the dead lads have appeared beside the mothers in a\nphotograph.  In one case the first message to the mother came through a\nstranger to whom the correct address of the mother was given.  The\ncommunication afterwards became direct.  In another case the method of\nsending messages was to give references to particular pages and lines\nof books in distant libraries, the whole conveying a message.  The\nprocedure was to weed out all fear of telepathy. Verily there is no\npossible way by which a truth can be proved by which this truth has not\nbeen proved.\n\nHow are you to act?  There is the difficulty. There are true men and\nthere are frauds.  You have to work warily.  So far as professional\nmediums go, you will not find it difficult to get recommendations. Even\nwith the best you may draw entirely blank.  The conditions are very\nelusive.  And yet some get the result at once.  We cannot lay down\nlaws, because the law works from the other side as well as this.\nNearly every woman is an undeveloped medium.  Let her try her own\npowers of automatic writing.  There again, what is done must be done\nwith every precaution against self-deception, and in a reverent and\nprayerful mood.  But if you are earnest, you will win through somehow,\nfor someone else is probably trying on the other side.\n\nSome people discountenance communication upon the ground that it is\nhindering the advance of the departed.  There is not a tittle of\nevidence for this. The assertions of the spirits are entirely to the\ncontrary and they declare that they are helped and strengthened by the\ntouch with those whom they love.  I know few more moving passages in\ntheir simple boyish eloquence than those in which Raymond describes the\nfeelings of the dead boys who want to get messages back to their people\nand find that ignorance and prejudice are a perpetual bar.  \"It is hard\nto think your sons are dead, but such a lot of people do think so.  It\nis revolting to hear the boys tell you how no one speaks of them ever.\nIt hurts me through and through.\"\n\nAbove all read the literature of this subject.  It has been far too\nmuch neglected, not only by the material world but by believers.  Soak\nyourself with this grand truth.  Make yourself familiar with the\noverpowering evidence.  Get away from the phenomenal side and learn the\nlofty teaching from such beautiful books as After Death or from\nStainton Moses' Spirit Teachings.  There is a whole library of such\nliterature, of unequal value but of a high average. Broaden and\nspiritualize your thoughts.  Show the results in your lives.\nUnselfishness, that is the keynote to progress.  Realise not as a\nbelief or a faith, but as a fact which is as tangible as the streets of\nLondon, that we are moving on soon to another life, that all will be\nvery happy there, and that the only possible way in which that\nhappiness can be marred or deferred is by folly and selfishness in\nthese few fleeting years.\n\nIt must be repeated that while the new revelation may seem destructive\nto those who hold Christian dogmas with extreme rigidity, it has quite\nthe opposite effect upon the mind which, like so many modern minds, had\ncome to look upon the whole Christian scheme as a huge delusion.  It is\nshown clearly that the old revelation has so many resemblances, defaced\nby time and mangled by man's mishandling and materialism, but still\ndenoting the same general scheme, that undoubtedly both have come from\nthe same source.  The accepted ideas of life after death, of higher and\nlower spirits, of comparative happiness depending upon our own conduct,\nof chastening by pain, of guardian spirits, of high teachers, of an\ninfinite central power, of circles above circles approaching nearer to\nHis presence--all of these conceptions appear once more and are\nconfirmed by many witnesses.  It is only the claims of infallibility\nand of monopoly, the bigotry and pedantry of theologians, and the\nman-made rituals which take the life out of the God-given thoughts--it\nis only this which has defaced the truth.\n\nI cannot end this little book better than by using words more eloquent\nthan any which I could write, a splendid sample of English style as\nwell as of English thought.  They are from the pen of that considerable\nthinker and poet, Mr. Gerald Massey, and were written many years ago.\n\n\"Spiritualism has been for me, in common with many others, such a\nlifting of the mental horizon and letting-in of the heavens--such a\nformation of faith into facts, that I can only compare life without it\nto sailing on board ship with hatches battened down and being kept a\nprisoner, living by the light of a candle, and then suddenly, on some\nsplendid starry night, allowed to go on deck for the first time to see\nthe stupendous mechanism of the heavens all aglow with the glory of\nGod.\"\n\n\n\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS\n\n\nI. THE NEXT PHASE OF LIFE\n\nI have spoken in the text of the striking manner in which accounts of\nlife in the next phase, though derived from the most varied and\nindependent sources, are still in essential agreement--an agreement\nwhich occasionally descends to small details.  A variety is introduced\nby that fuller vision which can see and describe more than one plane,\nbut the accounts of that happy land to which the ordinary mortal may\nhope to aspire, are very consistent.  Since I wrote the statement I\nhave read three fresh independent descriptions which again confirm the\npoint.  One is the account given by \"A King's Counsel,\" in his recent\nbook, I Heard a Voice (Kegan Paul), which I recommended to inquirers,\nthough it has a strong Roman Catholic bias running through it which\nshows that our main lines of thought are persistent.  A second is the\nlittle book The  Light on the Future, giving the very interesting\ndetails of the beyond, gathered by an earnest and reverent circle in\nDublin. The other came in a private letter from Mr. Hubert Wales, and\nis, I think, most instructive.  Mr. Wales is a cautious and rather\nsceptical inquirer who had put away his results with incredulity (he\nhad received them through his own automatic writing).  On reading my\naccount of the conditions described in the beyond, he hunted up his own\nold script which had commended itself so little to him when he first\nproduced it.  He says: \"After reading your article, I was struck,\nalmost startled, by the circumstance that the statements which had\npurported to be made to me regarding conditions after death\ncoincided--I think almost to the smallest detail--with those you set\nout as the result of your collation of material obtained from a great\nnumber of sources.  I cannot think there was anything in my antecedent\nreading to account for this coincidence.  I had certainly read nothing\nyou had published on the subject.  I had purposely avoided Raymond and\nbooks like it, in order not to vitiate  my own results, and the\nProceedings of the S.P.R. which I had read at that time, do not touch,\nas you know, upon after-death conditions.  At any rate I obtained, at\nvarious times, statements (as my contemporary notes show) to the effect\nthat, in this persisting state of existence, they have bodies which,\nthough imperceptible by our senses, are as solid to them as ours to us,\nthat these bodies are based on the general characteristics of our\npresent bodies but beautified; that they have no age, no pain, no rich\nand poor; that they wear clothes and take nourishment; that they do not\nsleep (though they spoke of passing occasionally into a semiconscious\nstate which they called 'lying asleep'--a condition, it just occurs to\nme, which seems to correspond roughly with the 'Hypnoidal' state);\nthat, after a period which is usually shorter than the average\nlife-time here, they pass to some further state of existence; that\npeople of similar thoughts, tastes and feelings, gravitate together;\nthat married couples do not necessarily reunite, but that the love of\nman and woman  continues and is freed of elements which with us often\nmilitate against its perfect realization; that immediately after death\npeople pass into a semi-conscious rest-state lasting various periods,\nthat they are unable to experience bodily pain, but are susceptible at\ntimes to some mental anxiety; that a painful death is 'absolutely\nunknown,' that religious beliefs make no difference whatever in the\nafter-state, and that their life altogether is intensely happy, and no\none having ever realised it could wish to return here.  I got no\nreference to 'work' by that word, but much to the various interests\nthat were said to occupy them.  That is probably only another way of\nsaying the same thing.  'Work' with us has come usually to mean 'work\nto live,' and that, I was emphatically informed, was not the case with\nthem--that all the requirements of life were somehow mysteriously\n'provided.'  Neither did I get any reference to a definite 'temporary\npenal state,' but I gathered that people begin there at the point of\nintellectual and moral development where they leave off here; and since\ntheir state of happiness was based mainly upon sympathy, those who came\nover in a low moral condition, failed at first for various lengths of\ntime to have the capacity to appreciate and enjoy it.\"\n\n\n\nAUTOMATIC WRITING\n\nThis form of mediumship gives the very highest results, and yet in its\nvery nature is liable to self-deception.  Are we using our own hand or\nis an outside power directing it?  It is only by the information\nreceived that we can tell, and even then we have to make broad\nallowance for the action of our own subconscious knowledge.  It is\nworth while perhaps to quote what appears to me to be a thoroughly\ncritic-proof case, so that the inquirer may see how strong the evidence\nis that these messages are not self-evolved. This case is quoted in Mr.\nArthur Hill's recent book Man Is a Spirit (Cassell & Co.) and is\ncontributed by a gentleman who takes the name of Captain James Burton.\nHe is, I understand, the same medium (amateur) through whose\ncommunications the position of the buried ruins at Glastonbury have\nrecently been located. \"A week after my father's funeral I was writing\na business letter, when something seemed to intervene between my hand\nand the motor centres of my brain, and the hand wrote at an amazing\nrate a letter, signed with my father's signature and purporting to come\nfrom him. I was upset, and my right side and arm became cold and numb.\nFor a year after this letters came frequently, and always at unexpected\ntimes.  I never knew what they contained until I examined them with a\nmagnifying-glass: they were microscopic.  And they contained a vast\namount of matter with which it was impossible for me to be acquainted.\"\n. . .  \"Unknown to me, my mother, who was staying some sixty miles\naway, lost her pet dog, which my father had given her.  The same night\nI had a letter from him condoling with her, and stating that the dog\nwas now with him.  'All things which love us and are necessary to our\nhappiness in the world are with us here.'  A most sacred secret, known\nto no one but my father and mother, concerning a matter which occurred\nyears before I was born, was afterwards told me in the script, with the\ncomment:  'Tell your mother this, and she will know that it is I, your\nfather, who am writing.'  My mother had been unable to accept the\npossibility up to now, but when I told her this she collapsed and\nfainted.  From that moment the letters became her greatest comfort, for\nthey were lovers during the forty years of their married life, and his\ndeath almost broke her heart.\n\n\"As for myself, I am as convinced that my father, in his original\npersonality, still exists, as if he were still in his study with the\ndoor shut.  He is no more dead than he would be were he living in\nAmerica.\n\n\"I have compared the diction and vocabulary of these letters with those\nemployed in my own writing--I am not unknown as a magazine\ncontributor--and I find no points of similarity between the two.\"\nThere is much further evidence in this case for which I refer the\nreader to the book itself.\n\n\n\nTHE CHERITON DUGOUT\n\nI have mentioned in the text that I had some recent experience of a\ncase where a \"polter-geist\" or mischievous spirit had been manifesting.\nThese entities appear to be of an undeveloped order and nearer to earth\nconditions than any others with which we are acquainted.  This\ncomparative materialism upon their part places them low in the scale of\nspirit, and undesirable perhaps as communicants, but it gives them a\nspecial value as calling attention to crude obvious phenomena, and so\narresting the human attention and forcing upon our notice that there\nare other forms of life within the universe.  These borderland forces\nhave attracted passing attention at several times and places in the\npast, such cases as the Wesley persecution at Epworth, the Drummer of\nTedworth, the Bells of Bealing, etc., startling the country for a\ntime--each of them being an impingement of unknown forces upon human\nlife.  Then almost simultaneously came the Hydesville case in America\nand the Cideville disturbances in France, which were so marked that\nthey could not be overlooked.  From them sprang the whole modern\nmovement which, reasoning upwards from small things to great, from raw\nthings to developed ones, from phenomena to messages, is destined to\ngive religion the firmest basis upon which it has ever stood.\nTherefore, humble and foolish as these manifestations may seem, they\nhave been the seed of large developments, and are worthy of our\nrespectful, though critical, attention.\n\nMany such manifestations have appeared of recent years in various\nquarters of the world, each of which is treated by the press in a more\nor less comic vein, with a conviction apparently that the use of the\nword \"spook\" discredits the incident and brings discussion to an end.\nIt is remarkable that each is treated as an entirely isolated\nphenomenon, and thus the ordinary reader gets no idea of the strength\nof the cumulative evidence.  In this particular case of the Cheriton\nDugout the facts are as follows:\n\nMr. Jaques, a Justice of the Peace and a man of education and\nintelligence, residing at Embrook House, Cheriton, near Folkestone,\nmade a dugout just opposite to his residence as a protection against\nair raids. The house was, it may be remarked, of great antiquity, part\nof it being an old religious foundation of the 14th Century.  The\ndugout was constructed at the base of a small bluff, and the sinking\nwas through ordinary soft sandstone.  The work was carried out by a\nlocal jobbing builder called Rolfe, assisted by a lad.  Soon after the\ninception of his task he was annoyed by his candle being continually\nblown out by jets of sand, and, by similar jets hitting up against his\nown face. These phenomena he imagined to be due to some gaseous or\nelectrical cause, but they reached such a point that his work was\nseriously hampered, and he complained to Mr. Jaques, who received the\nstory with absolute incredulity.  The persecution continued, however,\nand increased in intensity, taking the form now of actual blows from\nmoving material, considerable objects, such as stones and bits of\nbrick, flying past him and hitting the walls with a violent impact.\nMr. Rolfe, still searching for a physical explanation, went to Mr.\nHesketh, the Municipal Electrician of Folkestone, a man of high\neducation and intelligence, who went out to the scene of the affair and\nsaw enough to convince himself that the phenomena were perfectly\ngenuine and inexplicable by ordinary laws.  A Canadian soldier who was\nbilleted upon Mr. Rolfe, heard an account of the happenings from his\nhost, and after announcing his conviction that the latter had \"bats in\nhis belfry\" proceeded to the dugout, where his experiences were so\ninstant and so violent that he rushed out of the place in horror.  The\nhousekeeper at the Hall also was a witness of the movement of bricks\nwhen no human hands touched them.  Mr. Jaques, whose incredulity had\ngradually thawed before all this evidence, went down to the dugout in\nthe absence of everyone, and was departing from it when five stones\nrapped up against the door from the inside.  He reopened the door and\nsaw them lying there upon the floor.  Sir William Barrett had meanwhile\ncome down, but had seen nothing.  His stay was a short one.  I\nafterwards made four visits of about two hours each to the grotto, but\ngot nothing direct, though I saw the new brickwork all chipped about by\nthe blows which it had received.  The forces appeared to have not the\nslightest interest in psychical research, for they never played up to\nan investigator, and yet their presence and action have been\ndemonstrated to at least seven different observers, and, as I have\nsaid, they left their traces behind them, even to the extent of picking\nthe flint stones out of the new cement which was to form the floor, and\narranging them in tidy little piles.  The obvious explanation that the\nboy was an adept at mischief had to be set aside in view of the fact\nthat the phenomena occurred in his absence.  One extra man of science\nwandered on to the scene for a moment, but as his explanation was that\nthe movements occurred through the emanation of marsh-gas, it did not\nadvance matters much.  The disturbances are still proceeding, and I\nhave had a letter this very morning (February 21st, 1918) with fuller\nand later details from Mr. Hesketh, the Engineer.\n\nWhat is the REAL explanation of such a matter? I can only say that I\nhave advised Mr. Jaques to dig into the bluff under which he is\nconstructing his cellar.  I made some investigation myself upon the top\nof it and convinced myself that the surface ground at that spot has at\nsome time been disturbed to the depth of at least five feet.  Something\nhas, I should judge, been buried at some date, and it is probable that,\nas in the case cited in the text, there is a connection between this\nand the disturbances.  It is very probable that Mr. Rolfe is, unknown\nto himself, a physical medium, and that when he was in the confined\nspace of the cellar he turned it into a cabinet in which his magnetic\npowers could accumulate and be available for use.  It chanced that\nthere was on the spot some agency which chose to use them, and hence\nthe phenomena.  When Mr. Jaques went alone to the grotto the power left\nbehind by Mr. Rolfe, who had been in it all morning, was not yet\nexhausted and he was able to get some manifestations.  So I read it,\nbut it is well not to be dogmatic on such matters.  If there is\nsystematic digging I should expect an epilogue to the story.\n\nWhilst these proofs were in the press a second very marked case of a\nPolter-geist came within my knowledge. I cannot without breach of\nconfidence reveal the details and the phenomena are still going on.\nCuriously enough, it was because one of the sufferers from the invasion\nread some remarks of mine upon the Cheriton dugout that this other case\ncame to my knowledge, for the lady wrote to me at once for advice and\nassistance.  The place is remote and I have not yet been able to visit\nit, but from the full accounts which I have now received it seems to\npresent all the familiar features, with the phenomenon of direct\nwriting superadded.  Some specimens of this script have reached me.\nTwo clergymen have endeavoured to mitigate the phenomena, which are\noccasionally very violent, but so far without result.  It may be some\nconsolation to any others who may be suffering from this strange\ninfliction, to know that in the many cases which have been carefully\nrecorded there is none in which any physical harm has been inflicted\nupon man or beast.","title":"The New Revelation","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":20199}